Alice Madness Returns White Queen

White King
Alice character
First appearanceThrough the Looking-Glass
Created byLewis Carroll
Portrayed byMichael Socha (Once Upon a Time in Wonderland)
Information
SpeciesHuman
GenderMale
OccupationKing
SpouseWhite Queen
ChildrenLily (a pawn)
NationalityLooking-Glass Land

The White King is a fictional character who appears in Lewis Carroll's 1871 fantasy novel Through the Looking-Glass. Aside from Alice herself, he is one of the earliest chesspieces that are introduced into the story. Although he does not interact with Alice as much as the White Queen does, because Alice becomes a pawn on his side of the Chess-game, he is, on some levels, the most important character within the story at least as far as the game is concerned. He is not to be confused with the King of Hearts from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Prior to the game[edit]

When Alice first sees the White King, having passed through the eponymous looking glass, he is a chesspiece of normal size, but animate, and, for whatever reason, cannot hear or see Alice at this stage. Alice, not realising this, picks both him and the White Queen off the floor and places them on a table, leading them to believe that some unseen volcano blew them up there. Afterwards, however, she has some mischievous fun by manipulating the King's handwriting from behind while he writes so that he comes out with nonsense in his memorandum book ('the White Knight is sliding down the poker. He balances very badly'). She soon leaves him alone, however, when she sees the poetry-book in which 'Jabberwocky' is written.

Mar 08, 2011  Alice Madness Returns - Meeting the queen - Duration: 2:47. Artorius 608,979 views. The Queen is looking for her daughter Lily; Alice helps her by lifting the White Queen and King onto the table, leading them to believe they were thrown up by an invisible volcano. When Alice meets the Red Queen and joins the chess game, she takes the place of a white pawn, Lily being too young to play.

During the game[edit]

When Alice sees the White King next, in a later chapter, he is, along with many other characters in the story, the size of a normal adult. Humpty Dumpty, as a chesspiece, is 'taken' (symbolised by his notorious fall from where he sits) and the White King appears with his soldiers, presumably in hopes of putting him back together. He and Alice begin characteristic Wonderland/Looking-Glass banter, as well as the usual Carrollian word play ('I only wish I had such eyes...to be able to see Nobody').[1] His imperial status as a king, as well as his tendency to take things literally, is reflected in such statements as 'it isn't respectable to beg' when Alice simply says 'I beg your pardon' and he also remarks that he needs his two messengers Hatta and Haigha: 'one to come and one to go... one to fetch and one to carry'. When Haigha arrives he claims, in all seriousness, that there is 'nothing like eating hay when you're feeling faint', and having eaten two hamsandwiches consumes some hay just as casually. He expresses mixed feelings about two other characters, the Lion and the Unicorn: amusement at the fact that they are 'fighting for the crown' even though it is his own crown they are fighting over, but at the same time nervousness when the 'two great creatures' stand on either side of him. However, given that they, as chesspieces, are protecting him from danger from the red side, there is, as Carroll tells us, 'nothing to be done about it'.

Alice Madness Returns Steam

His identity as a king in a game of Chess is revealed all the more when he admits that he can never quite catch up with his spouse, because, like all chess-queens, she moves too fast and for too many squares ahead of him for him to overtake her. Indeed, a more extreme version of this relationship can be seen on the opposite side of the game, in which the Red King remains asleep throughout the whole story, and the Red Queen runs her famous race.

Late in the game[edit]

Although we do not see the White King again, he is placed into check by the Red Knight before the clumsy soldier is defeated by the even-clumsier White Knight. Gardner, in The Annotated Alice has observed that he is also later put into check by the Red Queen, without either side showing any acknowledgment of it. The White Queen, with characteristic stupidity, performs a completely pointless move on her turn. After Alice 'takes' the Red Queen and checkmates the inanimate Red King, any potential danger is removed and the game, as well as her dream, comes to an end.

In other Media[edit]

  • In the anime and manga series Pandora Hearts, the White King seems to have the core of the abyss, with Levi also having some elements.
  • The White King appears in the 1985 made-for-TV adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and is portrayed by Harvey Korman. He and one of his messengers, played by John Stamos, sing to Alice the story of The Lion and the Unicorn.
  • The White King appears in the video game American McGee's Alice and its sequel, Alice: Madness Returns.
  • In the final moments of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Alice says that the Knave married the Red Queen, the two then becoming the White King and Queen.

References[edit]

  1. ^'Lewis Carroll, the Original Mathematical Novelist by Robert Black'. Royal Fireworks Press. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
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Alice: Madness Returns is the sequel to the third person action-adventure game American McGee's Alice.

Alice[edit]

  • My Wonderland is shattered. It's dead to me.
  • Another day, a different dream perhaps.
  • Is it mad to pray for better hallucinations?
  • I know what's real!
  • I know I'm guilty of something, but punishment hardly ever suits the victims of a crime.
  • Who set that bloody train in motion? Where has it come from?
  • You've used me and abused me, but you will not destroy me!
  • It's not a dream. It's a...memory. And it makes me sick!
  • Wonderland has become quite strange. How is one to find her way?
  • This is good for me. I'm not insane! I didn't kill my family. I am fine. I'm not mad. I am innocent, I mean, not guilty!
  • I've not come back here looking for a fight.
  • I want to forget! Who would choose to be alone, imprisoned by their broken memories? [bitter]
  • I know their pain. I would assist. But is sanity required for the job?
  • Blasted Cat!
Alice Madness Returns White Queen

Cheshire Cat[edit]

  • Puurrfect. When you're not on edge, you're taking up too much space.
  • Threats, promises and good intentions don't amount to action.
  • Every picture tells a story. Sometimes we don't like the ending. Sometimes we don't understand it.
  • Ah, Alice. We can't go home again. No surprise really. Only a very few find the way, and most of them don't recognize it when they do. Delusions, too, die hard with memory. Only the savage regard the endurance of pain as the measure of worth. Forgetting pain is convenient, remembering it: agonizing. But recovering the truth is worth the suffering and our Wonderland, though damaged, is safe in memory... for now.
  • Abandon that hope! A new law reigns in this wonderland Alice, it's very rough justice all around. We're at risk here. You, be on your guard.
  • A secret is only a secret when it is unspoken to another.
  • Different denotes neither bad nor good, but it certainly means not the same.
  • Only the insane equate pain with success.
  • Only fools believe that suffering is just wages for being different.
  • Every adventure requires a first step. Trite, but true, even here.
  • The uninformed must improve their deficit, or die
  • Only a few find the way, some don't recognize it when they do - some... don't ever want to.
  • Haste makes waste, so I rarely hurry. But if a ferret were about to dart up my dress, I'd run.
  • A reflection sometimes exposes more reality than the object it echoes.

Mad Hatter[edit]

  • The world is upside-down, Alice. Inmates run the asylum - no offence - and worst of all... I'm left tea-less!
  • The insolence, the arrogance the execrable table manners! They are destroyers of Wonderland! Defilers! Denuders! Derangers! Delightful...
  • The law is just. Just a whisper away. Who knows how to measure rules? With a ruler! Cruel rules.
  • Everything's a nail, is it, Miss Hammerhead? First it was your search, freighted with fear and fragmented memories. Now it's the train! Never time for tea. While your brain's on holiday, we're ruined! Now we're all mad here and that's a good excuse for going to hell in a teapot, but not for forgetting what your senses saw.
  • Forgetting's just forgetting, except when it's not. Then they call it something else. I'd like to forget what you did. I've tried, but I can't.

The Queen of Hearts[edit]

  • A good guest does not overstay, a perfect guest stays home!
  • The train is trying to destroy all evidence of your past and especially the fire. Now, who would want that? Who benefits from your madness?
  • There is no method in this madness!
  • Authority must be obeyed, or it must be overthrown!
  • What you claim not to know is merely what you've denied. You've recaptured your vagrant memories. What are you doing with them?
  • You shouldn't ask questions you know the answer to, it's not polite.
  • Make your survival mean something, or we are all doomed!
  • I may survive here, but you're finished!
  • You don't know your own mind!

Dr Bumby[edit]

  • Memory is more often a curse than a blessing.
  • The cost of forgetting is high.
  • The past must be paid for.
  • A flower's purpose is simple and immutable. Human purpose is fickle because it is a slave to memory. Memories must be strictly managed, Alice. Unproductive ones must be eliminated.

Other[edit]

  • Nurse Witless: Still a mess, no surprise. Her kin roasted like chestnuts right before her eyes. Ten years in Rutledge Asylum wasted everyone's time! Dr Bumby won't do better. Still hauling out her questions: the fire, her memory. I deserve consideration, don't I? Who found her her new clothes? Who got her a place at Bumby's? Where she'd be without me? On the street, selling her backside! Likes my pigeons, though. She's doled out the odd pound or two. But I know what's worth more than that! Kept her secret, haven't I? Heard her say 'All died on my account, I couldn't save you!' I've told her my silence is for sale, cheap! I'm a good sort, really, not like her nanny, that uppity whore! Or that lawyer fellow Radcliffe [who] took her stupid rabbit! Need money... warned her I'd tell the coppers if she didn't make a 'donation' to my upkeep. She yells and goes off her head. Days she can't remember her name, what I heard.
  • Dr Bumby: Come, Alice, am I not to be as much honoured and obeyed as the Queen? Is that asking too much? I want what she wanted. Give yourself over to that: trade the tentacles for the train. It's altogether a better ride. It's that or back to Rutledge!
  • Nurse Witless: Never a kind word or reward for services rendered! Don't I deserve a bit of luck? Don't piss on what's right and owing to me, I say! Brought you out of the asylum, now you'll go back of your own accord!

Alice Madness Returns Esrb

  • Nanny: I told your mother, dear. You're a distant and stubborn child, too content in her own world. Young women need to leave their wonderlands. The real world is not so 'wonderful'. You'll need to grow up. Perhaps some more time in 'care'?
  • Radcliffe: You look decent enough. But appearances deceive: I know you for an unstable and violent person! I can't say I'm surprised you've been incarcerated in the asylum again. A long stay under supervision would serve you right!
  • Dr. Wilson: 'Flight or Fight' implies a permanent choice. But 'flight' often just means putting the fight off to another day. Choose your battles wisely, Alice.
  • Walrus' Poem:
Sword and crown are worthless here,
I invite everyone to dance
Labourers, lawyers, church and gown all make their little prance.
This life is full of random death
And heaps of grief and shame,
So few are soothed by 'accident'
You want someone to blame.
Fire, plague or strange disease,
Drowned, murdered or, if you please,
A long fall down the basement stairs
None are expected, no one cares.
I often must work very hard
Sweat running down my skin,
After the dance I then must rest
And the eating can begin.

Dialogue[edit]

Alice: At least the place I've landed is somewhat familiar
Cheshire Cat: [Suddenly materializing] About time, too, Alice.
Alice: Blasted cat! Don't try to bully me. I'm very much on edge!
Cheshire Cat: Purrfect. When you're not on edge, you're taking up too much space.
Alice: You are no help at all!
Cheshire Cat: But you know I can be.
Alice: I'll frighten myself when necessary, thanks very much. I was hoping to escape all that!
Cheshire Cat: Abandon that hope! A new law reigns in 'this' Wonderland, Alice, it's very rough justice all round. We're at risk here, you be on your guard!
Duchess: Ah it's you again, Alice. You may approach.
Alice: Why would I do that? You want to eat me!
Duchess: Yes, well you taught me manners and I've lost my taste for mad women; strictly a porcine diet for me. Everything is better with bacon, don't you agree? Of course you do. Now, there are pig snots scattered about. I heard a few behind the house; go fetch them for me. But take care of the pests that block your way. Pepper them up if they do. They need spice and you're just the dish -- ehm -- girl to season them for me. You'll find that grinder serviceable.
Alice: Why not season your own pig parts?
Duchess: Matters of priorities! My Alabaster skin needs protection from the disgusting creatures running amok amidst the environs. But one gets peckish! Look, all you have to do is listen for the oink, then shoot the snout! You may like the results. I certainly will.
Alice: The Hatter's Domain, almost as I remember it!
Cheshire Cat: Appearances, as you know better than most, can be deceiving, Alice. Much has changed since your last visit.
Alice: Dr Bumby says change is 'constructive', that 'different' is good.
Cheshire Cat: Different denotes neither 'bad' nor 'good', but it certainly means not the same! Find the Hatter, Alice. He knows more about 'different' than you.
Alice: But does he know more about the difference between bad and good?
Cheshire Cat: [noticing the Bolterflies attacking] Making friends, Alice? You're as randomly lethal and entirely confused as you ever were.
Alice: I've managed without you so far, Cat. Return to whatever hovel's home to you, I'll call if I need you.
Cheshire Cat: Predictably rash. It's not a question of 'if', Alice, it's 'when'. Now hold on, and as they say, 'shut up'! [he disappears]
Alice: So typical.
Mock Turtle: You'd better come aboard, Alice. We're doomed, of course!
Alice: What? There's no hope, then?
Mock Turtle: Oh, there's an infinite amount of hope, but not for us!
Mock Turtle: Confounded beasts, they want my ship!
Alice: I think you're more to their taste.
Mock Turtle: [outraged] Never! We're almost relatives!
Alice: You're related to soup, Admiral.
Caterpillar: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!
Alice: A single step off London Bridge could end my journey...
Caterpillar: Failure as your epitaph? I'd hoped you were more courageous!
Alice: I've come all this way to find a simulacrum?!
Caterpillar: If I had the time, I'd detail how often you prefer dealing with illusions rather than the real thing. Problems you refuse to deal with don't exist! You deny reality!
Alice: That's not right! I know what's real!
Caterpillar: No! You allow others to tell you what isn't real.
Alice Madness Returns White Queen
Alice: My memories are shattered! This wicked train has ruined nearly all I can recall and Wonderland will perish completely as I lose my mind. So much has changed... I can't help Wonderland if I can't help myself!
Caterpillar: Much has changed, but you've got it backwards: save Wonderland and you may save yourself! The Carpenter was on to something, but he was hiding from the real. Your goal is to accept it!
Alice: Where should I go, then? What should I do?
Caterpillar: The Queen must be served, Alice. The Queen, in all her guises, must always be served.
Alice: How can she stem this growing corruption or assist my search? What does she know that I don't?
Caterpillar: She is someone you once knew and loved. Time changes us all.
Alice: Not all change is good!
Caterpillar: Remember that when you find the Queen!
Cheshire Cat: Back to admire your handiwork? Returning to the scene of the crime?
Alice: It had to be done, Cat, you said so yourself! 'You and this Red Queen cannot both survive. She is a cancer in your body. Excise her or perish!'
Cheshire Cat: Well, she was the face of evil in the heart of darkness...
Alice: She didn't treat you too well last time, lost your head as I recall!
Cheshire Cat: She was completely deranged. You picked up her crown, but now you've put it down. You must speak to her; what's left of her, anyway.
Alice: The Red Kingdom's in ruins, but you're no better off!
White King: When you defeated her, I tried to reclaim the castle, but I was set upon by her monstrosities. The malignant royal bitch still reigns.
Alice: I'm here to petition her. I must get inside.
White King: The only way in is through me. Sacrifices must be made.
Alice: Those who say so usually mean 'they should be made by others'.
White King: Cynicism is a disease! It can be cured. Once inside, beware of the outsized killer who patrols her domain. Never confront him; he is invincible. Now cut me loose: I'll show you the meaning of 'sacrifice'!
Alice: [to the Queen] I was expecting someone else!
Queen of Hearts: You don't know your own mind!
Alice: It's nearly a complete stranger!
Queen of Hearts: What you claim not to know is merely what you've denied. You've recaptured your vagrant memories: what are you doing with them?! You once rejected my attempts to control our lives forcefully, but now you've allowed another to succeed in my role!
Alice: I won't miss your tentacles.
Queen of Hearts: [infuriated] You'd prefer the hot stinking breath and unyielding attentions of a potent, unreasoning, unfeeling hellraiser?! I don't think so!
Alice: Can you give me more than a warning? Caterpillar said you might help!
Queen of Hearts: I'd need a better reason to respond than what's currently on offer!
Alice: If you don't, we're all doomed!
Queen of Hearts: Not doomed. Forgotten! I may survive here, but you're finished! You see the pattern of destruction, I know you do! The train is trying to destroy all evidence of your past and especially the fire. Now, who would want that? Who benefits from your madness?!
Alice: The destruction of Wonderland... is the destruction of me?!
Queen of Hearts: Indeed! And vice versa!
Alice: I've set it in motion, I can derail it. This is good for me! I'm not insane! I didn't kill my family. I am fine. I'm not mad, I'm innocent - I mean, not guilty! [sees the tentacles wrapping around her] What's happening, what are you doing?!
Queen of Hearts: The train must be stopped, but there's more to do. Your view conceals a tragedy. The whole truth you 'claim' to seek eludes you because you won't look at what's around you! [swallows Alice; Inside Alice's memories] There is no method in this madness!
Dr Wilson: My professional opinion? Madness is often a treatable disease, though perhaps not in this case.
Queen of Hearts: Authority must be obeyed, or it must be overthrown!
Nurse Witless: 'Cruel to be kind', that's my technique as they say, but she's as mad as a hatter, poor dearie!
Dr Bumby: Worst is over, and over, and over. Forget it, Alice - forget it!
Insane Child: The unstable are more than merely mad: they have 'other parts'. The Dollmaker will deprive them of what remains of their deranged souls. They need care!
Alice: I know their pain. I would assist, but is sanity required for the job?
Insane Child: A limited quantity. You're not mad enough to be rejected. You're like them, of them in a way, but not them. I should say 'not us', for I'm them, but you are on your way. The way is clearly marked.
Alice: I believe I know that way and I'd rather not travel further along it.
Alice: My Lizzie... What is this train's destination?
Queen of Hearts: Madness and Destruction. You shouldn't ask the questions you know the answers to, it's not polite. And that noise wasn't Lizzie talking in her sleep.
Alice: Oh no... Poor Lizzie!
Queen of Hearts: And there are no centaurs in Oxford. Make your survival mean something or we are all doomed!
Caterpillar: Come to receive your punishment then?
Alice: I know I'm guilty of something, but punishment never suits the victims of the crime.
Caterpillar: Abuse is a crime the strong visit on the weak, and you're right, abusers are insufficiently punished for the damage they do. Those who witness abuse without seeking retribution for the harmed pay a penalty. Your own pain mitigates your failure to act earlier, but you may not yet have paid enough for witnessing the pain of others...
Alice: Is there really so little hope?
Cheshire Cat: There is even less. And if fear paralyzes you... we're lost.
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